On Friday evening the Men´s and Ladies´ teams joined to play a Mixed match against Freshfields HC from the UK. Casuals won an entertaining and light-hearted game 7-0.

Today the Men travelled to Porto to play Sport Club in their first league match. After some last-minute disappointments leaving Lisbon, they kept their opponents out for the first 15 minutes but, after Joe Kodde had made a spectacular clearance from a high strike at a penalty corner, they conceded two goals in 8 minutes, with Sport rounding the keeper for the second. But three minutes later Casuals pulled a goal back with a lovely tip-in from João Ralha. Just before the interval they pulled level at 2-2 when an exchange of passes in the midfield found Fred Santos, who waited for the keeper to commit before slamming a backhand shot into the roof of the net.

Sport started the second half in determined mood but, with João Miguel Freitas in goal making several last-ditch saves, it took 15 minutes for Sport to break the deadlock with a fierce penalty corner strike just inside the post. With the Casuals players tiring, the hosts added another goal to win 4-2, but Casuals can be satisfied with a good first performance in difficult circumstances.

With Chelmsford arriving on Sunday afternoon, a light-hearted Tourno in the evening with Mixed Casuals/Chelmsford teams was just about right to stretch some muscles. However on Monday morning the two Boys U18 sides played a highly competitive match. Chelmsford opened the scoring after a defensive lapse on 14 mins and, despite some sustained pressure, Casuals were only able to equalise 10 mins into the second half from an excellent reverse-stick drive. However 5 mins before the end Chelmsford sealed a 2-1 win with a sharp deflection in front of goal. The evening Mixed match saw Casuals gain some consolation with a 4-3 win in a very open game, and this was followed by a fun evening in Cascais.

In today’s final Mixed game neither side was able to score – hardly surprising, given the lunch-time heat and some very tired legs. This led to an impromptu shoot out, which Chelmsford edged 7-6. These 3 days  were another short but memorable exchange between the two Clubs, hopefully soon to be repeated.

Last weekend the British and Portuguese teams drew an exciting match for the Pringsheim Cup. After the Brits lead 2-1 at half time, the Portuguese built up strong pressure to lead 5-2. But the British managed to score 3 times on the break for a final 5-5 score line and a share of the trophy.

In today’s Veterans fixture, Casuals went 1-0 ahead against Belenenses, but allowed their opponents to equalise before the break. Casuals then took the lead again, before Belenenses made it 2-2 from a penalty corner.

At this morning’s end-of-season Hockey Feast there were games for all the Casuals juniors. After an U11 game, there was a game between mixed teams of U13s, U15s and U18s. This was followed by the annual prize-giving, at which medals and trophies were presented to Top Scorers and to the Most Improved Player in each age group.

Finally the U18s played the Ladies, and were made to work hard for a 2-1 win.